Cati V. de los Rios, PhD will discuss the growing national momentum for ethnic studies in K-12 public schools. Specifically, she will delineate the genealogy of ethnic studies as an academic discipline, its history in K-12 contexts, spotlight the voices of students, and showcase the classrooms and curricular moves of effective ethnic studies teachers. Her presentation will explore: What is ethnic studies? How is ethnic studies distinct from other justice-centered theories and movements in education? How can ethnic studies support academic literacy development and foster youth democratic engagement?

She will end with implications for educators, administrators and researchers interested in and committed to understanding and enacting ethnic studies.

Cati V. de los Rios is an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis' School of Education. She received her PhD in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2017 and is a former school teacher in California and Massachusetts. Her research on ethnic studies classrooms won fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and she recently receive the 2018 Promising Research Award and the 2018 Alan C. Purves Award form the National Council of Teachers of English for her research on literacy and ethnic studies.